Over 450 Easter eggs were delivered by Greater Anglia staff in a bid to put a smile on the faces of children spending Easter in hospital in the East Anglia area.

The collection of Easter eggs is part of an appeal that began in March where members of the public were asked to donate chocolate and treats for local hospitals and has seen Greater Anglia customers dropping off Easter eggs at Bishop’s Stortford, Harlow Town, Stansted Airport, Sawbridgeworth and Cambridge North stations.

An impressive 255 Easter eggs have been donated to the children’s ward at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, along with £150 which was raised to buy fun activity kits with colouring books and pens.

A wonderful Easter hamper crammed with sweet treats has also been given to the doctors, nurses and ward staff by the rail operators team.

Michael King who works as a relief ticket office clerk at Sawbridgeworth and Stansted Mountfitchet station on the Greater Anglia network came up with the fantastic scheme to give children in hospital an Easter egg.

Michael said:

“I first did this in 2020 and we only had 120 eggs donated then,” he said.

“I didn’t think we’d get anywhere as many as we have. I’m blown away by it.

“It was a case of doing something nice for the hospital, especially the hamper, to say thanks for what they’ve done over the past two years.

“I’m proud of what’s been achieved over the past six weeks, our staff and customers have helped out massively. I’d say a huge ‘thank you’ to everybody.”

Cambridge North station commuters have also donated 200 eggs and a bag filled with soft toys have also been donated for youngsters at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.

Denise Vincent who is a member of staff at the station made the donations possible and coordinated the effort.

Denise said:

“We thought we’d get to 50 and we would be happy – then it kept going and going.

“We had to pack it away very tidily to be able to store them as we had so many.

“We gave the eggs to the staff who play with the children on the ward and they were absolutely over the moon with the amount of them. They said that there are a lot of children there that were nil by mouth, so the cuddly toys were really appreciated too.

“We were blown away by the generosity from everyone that came through the station. The eggs just kept coming and coming.”